UK justices to hear appeal against British effort to keep information secret in torture cases

UK justices to hear detainees’ torture appeal

LONDON — Lawyers for six former Guantanamo detainees on Monday launched an appeal against a ruling that the British government can use secret evidence to fight a claim of complicity in the men’s abuse.

The legal battle is part of an effort to expose what role Britain played in the men’s imprisonment. Such secrecy is unusual in a civil case.

The six former Guantanamo detainees deny any involvement in terrorism. They allege that U.K. spy agencies abetted their unlawful imprisonment and extraordinary rendition to locations around the world where they were tortured.

The former Guantanamo detainees — who include Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed — say having access to the British government evidence is critical to the principles of open justice.

Lawyers for the men claim that the use of secret evidence would be dangerous in the judicial process.

“It has never been allowed in the history of the common law,” said Dinah Rose, a lawyer for several of the claimants. She said secret evidence was “fundamentally inconsistent with the adversarial system of justice.”